Confused?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm getting rather bored with this whole election business. We tune into the debates only to hear our esteemed presidential candidates haggling over whose contributors and supporters are more vile - racist, terrorist, and the like. If you're lucky enough to live in Virginia or another closely-contested state, your cable t.v. is inundated with political trash-talking (thank goodness for DVR!). And the best thing about it all is that you can go weeks without hearing actual policy proposals. Who needs real meat when you've got all the glorious fluff like Joe the Plumber and the cost of Sarah Palin's wardrobe?

On the plus side, it's much easier to hide my choice for president from my students if I don't even know who I prefer. I don't hate either candidate, which is a massive improvement from 2oo4, but I'm also not head-over-heels in love with either of them. In my search for easy to digest party platforms for my kids to read, I came across this lovely little gem:

"Government Spending

Democrats

Democrats make no excuses about massive government spending. For the government to provide a happy, healthy, shameless, and even exciting society, for everyone, regardless of their personal means, requires a massive amount of cash from the citizens as well as all you can borrow. Further, to make sure that no citizen gets into trouble and is in bed each night at a reasonable hour, a huge government staff is a necessity. This, in turn, requires every dime the public can spare and just a bit more.

Republicans

Republicans, in their hearts, and especially at campaign time, really would like to cut back on government spending -- especially such luxuries as the social, environmental, and health programs. But there are necessities that it would be irresponsible to avoid. Such things as National Defense, which requires a military budget far greater than any we have had in any major war, can no more be cut back than you can cut back on helping the folks back home that need a superhighway to the new park out in the country. These are essential expenditures unlike the "feel good" stuff of the Democrats. When Iraq threatens our shores by such hostile actions as flying one of their planes over the southern half of their country, we better be ready for action. "

-Leon Felkins
American Politics Journal
http://www.americanpolitics.com/030499dictionary.html

Read more: How to Tell a Democrat From a Republican (Really, do it, it's great.)


Hopefully sometime in the next 12 days I can sort through all the policies/drama and actually figure out who I want to vote for.